Skip to main content

William Shakspeare by Ivana Qartika (189207)


WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare was just a familiar unfamiliar name to me before I entered Dr. Ikhlas' class. I mean, he was everywhere, on the news, in the books, and on every bookshelf in the library. No matter where you were, in a kampung in Kedah or amidst the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur City. From Africa to New York. The world spoke of Shakespeare but within me, I never knew him deep down. William Shakespeare was just a name of a great playwright.

Even in cartoons like The Fairly Oddparents and in Disney movies, he was mentioned and compared to. The most prominent issue people would talk about him was the fact that he wrote Romeo and Juliet, one of the greatest love stories ever told. Some scholars even doubt the quality of his work making it a heated issue being discussed around the world. Was Shakespeare a fraud?

I believe a documentary was made on this issue on National Geographic. It was very elitist the fact that people doubt his works because of his education (Shakespeare never had formal education. He did not go to university.) This goes to show how Shakespeare went against the stereotype of someone who came from what was considered as the ''ghetto''. I came to know more about Shakespeare in Dr Ikhlas' class and I was very fortunate to learn more about this legendary writer. Shakespeare, in my opinion was a humanist. His plays were speaking mostly about people and the people who strayed away from God. It was no secret that Romeo and Juliet committed suicide, the act forbidden by their religion, proving their love towards one another led them subconsciously go against God's commands.

I was intrigued by the story of how their love came to be, to a point of death. It showed how strong their love was, that the death of one would bring full sorrow that the other is willing to take their own life. It is not in a way ''stupid'' as some people claim it to be. Those people,in my opinion, need to have a fuller understanding on what Shakespeare was trying to convey through Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare, as I mentioned, turned out to be a songwriter too. He wrote the song ''It Was A Lover and His Lass'. During our lecture in class, Dr. Ikhlas had shown us a video from Youtube of a female opera singer singing the song. I find it very wonderful that I found out something new about the legendary writer. I knew he wrote many plays and I have never realised the psychological complexity inhabited in his characters. Shakespeare was keen on inscribing social explorations through characters with different backgrounds. I.e The Jews. and also with people of colour in Othello.

Besides these wonderful facts, I also found out that Shakespeare's sonnets were being published much later than when he wrote them. He wrote beautiful sonnets and my current favourite has to be Sonnet 116. I love the lines

'' Admit impediments: love is not love,
Which alters when alteration finds''


I don't know if it was the time of the month, or something else, but his words were truly relatable to my feelings when I heard it that fine day in class. Sexuality wise, it was also questioned and argued whether or not Shakespeare was a homosexual. He wrote many sonnets for a young man. In my opinion, Shakespeare was and always will be one of the greatest writers of our time and it need not to be an issue if he was gay or not.

by Ivana Qartika Binti Shamsuddin 189207

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Cavalier Poets by Khalil Norsham (194807)

The Cavalier Poets During the Post-Renaissance period, there were three separate eras, which were the Caroline Era, the Restoration Period and also the Augustan Age. I found the Caroline Era really interesting, especially when it comes to a group of poets who called themselves the Cavalier Poets. So how did they got their name? What about the characteristics of these poets? And who are the Cavalier Poets? The Cavalier Poets are actually a group of poets who supported King Charles I who was an expert and really love fine arts. They are members of aristrocracy and often linked to Royalist as their main purpose in their poetry was to glorify the king. The Cavalier Poets were totally different from the traditional poet who loves to talk about philosophy and religion. They love to express more on celebratory things or expressing their joy. To them, enjoying life was far more important rather than following moral codes. Most of their poems hold an attitude of "carpe diem" which ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sonnet 18 by Nor Syahira Asyiqin (193449)

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNET Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? Last semester, my friend and I analayzed Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? by William Shakespeare for our class, A Survey of Prose Forms and Poetry in English. I was intimidated at first when our lecturer chose us to do this sonnet, and it was the only sonnet out of the list of poems for that course. William Shakespeare was one of the most eminent writers in the history of classic literature, so undoubtedly I would be apprehensive because the last thing that I want to do is giving my classmates the wrong information regarding this sonnet. Thus, I embarked on my journey through the world of Internet. I read this sonnet for the first time and I didn’t understand what Shakespeare was trying to say at all. I never liked poems anyway, so to me it was incomprehensible. I was basically clueless to put it lightly. I mean I knew it has some romantic elements to it (it’s Shakespeare we’re talking abou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Victorian Society by Muhammad Amzar (182839)

Victorian Society Introduction The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign from 20th June 1837 until her death on 22nd January 1901.It was a long period of peace, prosperity and refined sensibility. Major Events of the Victorian Era Some of the major events that took place during the Victorian era and influenced the literature of that time include: 1. A huge growth in population. 2. The Victorian era slightly overlaps with British Industrial Revolution. It witnessed big changes to the way people lived, worked and travelled. 3. In addition to the major developments in technology, there were emerging scientific beliefs like Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. 4. And finally, there were poor conditions for working class. The Industrial Revolution led to the distance between the halves and halvenots. Hence, the writers felt obligated to speak out against the societal injustice. Defining Victorian Literature in any satisfactory and...
1 comment
Read more